KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Stan Bell RIP

Despite the best efforts
of VMTC to exorcise demons from some memories, I've still got a few bad ones.

I'll never forget
Grandma Thelma saying this after I hid a pack of her smokes in a vase, uh, filled
with water in 8th grade, "You'll never amount to anything in your
life."

I really loved
her; but that kinda bothered me when I hurt my arm and pitching for the Yankees
was out.

Moretheless, I've spent a
lot of my life living down to her expectations.

Then there was
the bishop who said, "You may not regret it now; but someday..."

Geez.

It's true.

While I've tried
to confess and repent and reconcile in a way that would cause Luther's
confessor to think he was a piker over the past 13 years for sins in the
preceding..., the psalmist was on to something in 120:6-7.

And as someone
who, I confess, still loves the PCUSA and America in a nostalgic kinda way and
has rededicated emotions/energies/intercessions to their revival/renewal/regeneration/rebirth
- I'm as double-minded as anyone on what's really needed despite knowing Who's
needed - I'm really, really, really haunted by Billy's wife's conclusion of
years ago, "If God doesn't bring judgment on America soon, He will have to
apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

Help us, Jesus!

Literally.

@#$%

KDers know I'm not voting for the incumbent or insurgent in
November because I can't bring myself to vote for the lesser of two evils (go to the right
column and click on "Voting for the Lesser of...").

I can't vote for
a Joey Smith fan who can't relate to...

I can't vote for
a secularist who can't relate to...

About the former,
I can't vote for someone on the hunch that he may be a Mormon about as much as too many
pewsitters/pulpiteers in mainline denominations are Christians as personified
in Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture.

About the latter,
I can't vote for someone on the hunch that he means well and doesn't know what he's doing.

I wouldn't have
been much help to the allies in WW2 'cause I would have fought against Hitler and Stalin; knowing the
lesser of two evils is/remains evil.

Yeah, Billy's
wife's conclusion keeps ringing in my...

And did you catch
the incumbent's, uh, confession/commitment to outgoing Russian President Dmitri
Medvedev that he was looking forward to after
the November election so he'd have more flexibility in negotiating
our missile defense capabilities?

Say what?

To the text.

BBPBHO: "On
all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved
but it's important for him...[viz., Putin the KGB guy]...to give me
space."

Dmitri:
"Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space.
Space for you..."

BBPBHO:
"This is my last election. After my election, I have more
flexibility."

Dmitri: "I
understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir...[Putin]."

Say what?

Well, I guess
we're in Lent when we recall other betrayals.

Unreal.

Not, uh, really.

Consistent.

Posing.

You know what I
mean; and if you don't,
you've come under his spell just like...

Help us, Jesus!

Literally.

@#$%

Stan Bell just
went home to Jesus.

I got the call
last night.

He was related to
Billy's wife's family.

We often quoted
together what I quoted from her above.

He loved Jesus;
and told me that/He wouldn't allow him to vote for the incumbent or insurgent.

Stan was a very
simple man who loved Jesus and prayed/tried to love like Him to prove His love
for Him.

Because he wasn't
your typical "Young Life" or "Willow Creek" or
"Heartland" kinda youth director if
you know what I mean and you know what I mean if you knew him, I
had to convince three search committees to let him work avec moi.

None of 'em
regretted it; because his unyieldingly consistently passionate practice as a
youth professional was to esteem Jesus and the eternal as well as existential
significance of knowing Him as personal Lord and Savior.

Some of his
seminary classmates and some of my peers viewed him as Grandma Thelma viewed
me; but he shocked 'em all by leading more young and old people to Jesus than
most mainline pulpiteers and pewsitters that I've ever known.

Except for my
home pastor The Rev. Harold F. Mante, Stan was without peer when it came to
never fudging on Christocentric faith rooted in Biblical revelation and
forgiving everyone who had ever hurt him because he just believed that's a big
part of authentic Christianity.

My only regret is
not insisting some of my peers spend time with him.

He could have
cured their as he tried
to cure my posing Christianity.

He could have
been His best antidote for the Sodom and Gomorrah in...

@#$%

Stan and I shared
the same love for Jesus.

He practiced
it/Him better than me.

We also shared a
favorite song.

Listen.

Listen.

Thank you, Jesus,
for helping Stan so he can now intercede for us in a heavenly way.

1 comment:

Philip
said...

I cried as I read of Stan's death. Not tears of sorrow but of joy for he truly is a man of God who rests with God. His faith mocked my lack of faith. His genuine enthusiasm for Jesus was wiser than my pretentious knowledge. I am so glad that for a brief time he witnessed Jesus to me.